IELTS Writing Task 1: How to Describe a Bar Chart
Summary
TLDRIn this IELTS writing task one tutorial, Liz teaches how to effectively describe bar charts. She emphasizes the importance of paraphrasing the chart description and organizing the essay into an introduction, overview, and body paragraphs. Key features to highlight in the overview include high and low points, and comparisons between categories. Liz advises on structuring body paragraphs logically and using data to support statements. She also shares tips on using brackets and symbols for clarity and conciseness.
Takeaways
- 📊 **Introduction to Bar Charts**: Liz introduces the lesson on how to successfully write about bar charts for IELTS Task 1.
- 🔍 **Understanding the Chart**: The importance of reading the chart description to understand the data presented, such as the expenditure on consumer goods by France and the UK in 2010.
- 📝 **Introduction Writing Tips**: Tips on paraphrasing the given statement and including key information like categories, countries, and the date in the introduction paragraph.
- 💡 **Using Academic Language**: The use of academic language and passive tense is encouraged, such as 'units are measured in' for currency.
- 🔑 **The Importance of Overview**: The overview paragraph is crucial for a high band score, summarizing key features and trends from the chart.
- 🏁 **Identifying Key Features**: How to identify high and low points, and comparative spending between the two countries as key features for the overview.
- 📈 **Comparing Data**: Techniques for comparing data between categories and countries, using superlatives and comparatives.
- 📑 **Organizing Body Paragraphs**: Two methods for organizing body paragraphs are discussed, focusing on logical grouping of data for clarity.
- ✏️ **Writing Body Paragraphs**: Guidance on writing sentences that include linkers, comparatives, and the importance of including numerical data.
- 🔗 **Linking Information**: The use of linkers to connect information within sentences and the strategic placement of data for coherence.
- 📋 **Using Symbols**: Advice on using currency symbols in writing to save space and maintain a professional tone.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the lesson presented by Liz?
-The main focus of the lesson is to provide essential tips and techniques for successfully writing about bar charts for IELTS Writing Task 1.
What does Liz suggest to do with the description given by IELTS for the bar chart?
-Liz suggests paraphrasing the description given by IELTS to understand the meaning of the bar chart, which is key information for writing the task.
How many types of consumer goods are shown in the bar chart used in the lesson?
-There are five different types of consumer goods shown in the bar chart: cars, computers, books, perfume, and cameras.
Which two countries are represented in the bar chart and what colors are associated with them?
-The two countries represented in the bar chart are France and the UK, with France in blue and the UK in red.
What is the purpose of the introduction paragraph when writing about a bar chart in IELTS?
-The introduction paragraph is used to paraphrase the given statement and introduce the key information about the chart, including the categories and the countries involved.
Why is it important to include the unit of measurement in the introduction paragraph?
-Including the unit of measurement, such as Pounds Sterling, in the introduction paragraph is important because it provides context for the data and is a useful sentence structure for academic writing.
What is the significance of the overview paragraph in IELTS Writing Task 1?
-The overview paragraph is the most important paragraph as it collects all the key features of the chart. It is essential for a high band score, and without it, one cannot achieve above a band score 5.
What are the key features that should be included in the overview paragraph according to the lesson?
-The key features to include in the overview paragraph are the high points, low points, and the overall comparison between the two countries' expenditures.
How many body paragraphs should be written for the IELTS Writing Task 1 bar chart, and why?
-At least two body paragraphs should be written to demonstrate good organization and coherence, which accounts for 25% of the marks in task achievement.
What are the two ways Liz suggests organizing the body paragraphs for the bar chart writing?
-Liz suggests two ways to organize the body paragraphs: one is by grouping the highest and lowest spending categories together, and the other is by grouping categories where one country spent more than the other.
Why is it important to use data to support sentences in the body paragraphs?
-Using data to support sentences in the body paragraphs is crucial because without it, the writing may not meet the task achievement criteria, potentially resulting in a band score of five or lower.
What is the advice given for using currency symbols in the body paragraphs?
-It is advised to use currency symbols for conciseness, and the examiner will count them as one word when assessing the response length.
Outlines
📊 Introduction to Bar Charts for IELTS Writing Task One
Liz introduces the lesson on bar charts for IELTS writing task one, focusing on tips and techniques for success. She presents a bar chart showing the expenditure of two countries, France and the UK, on consumer goods in 2010. The lesson aims to guide students on what information to include in each paragraph and how to write it. Liz emphasizes the importance of reading the chart description to understand the data and explains the structure of the bar chart, including the vertical axis for money spent and the horizontal axis for types of consumer goods. She also discusses the need to paraphrase the given description in the introduction paragraph and provides an example of how to do so, including mentioning the currencies used.
🔍 Writing the Overview in IELTS Writing Task One
In this segment, Liz explains the significance of the overview paragraph in IELTS writing task one, which captures the key features of the chart. She stresses that without an overview, achieving a high band score is unlikely. Liz identifies the key features as the high and low points of the chart, using the example of France and the UK's spending on consumer goods. She demonstrates how to construct an overview sentence that includes the total expenditure comparison and the most and least spent on specific items. The overview paragraph is crucial for task achievement and can significantly impact the band score.
📚 Organizing Body Paragraphs for Coherence and Cohesion
Liz discusses the organization of body paragraphs in IELTS writing task one, highlighting the importance of logical division for coherence and cohesion. She presents two methods for organizing the paragraphs: one focusing on the highest and lowest spending categories and another based on the comparison of spending between the two countries. She provides examples of how to write sentences for each category, emphasizing the use of linkers and comparatives. Liz also advises on the use of symbols for currencies and percentages to avoid repetition and ensure clarity. The segment concludes with a reminder to support all statements with data from the chart.
✍️ Completing the IELTS Writing Task with Effective Data Presentation
In the final paragraph, Liz wraps up the lesson by summarizing the key points for writing an effective IELTS writing task one response. She reiterates the importance of including data to support sentences in the body paragraphs and the use of symbols for currencies. Liz also encourages students to practice writing and to visit her blog for further guidance and answers to common questions about IELTS writing task one and other IELTS skills. The lesson concludes with an invitation for students to engage with the content by liking the video and asking questions in the comments.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡IELTS writing task one
💡Bar chart
💡Introduction
💡Overview
💡Body paragraphs
💡Phrasal verbs
💡Paraphrasing
💡Linkers
💡Comparatives and superlatives
💡Coherence and cohesion
💡Symbols for currencies
Highlights
Introduction to bar charts for IELTS writing task one
Explanation of the bar chart showing expenditure on consumer goods in 2010
Importance of reading the IELTS description for understanding the bar chart
Identification of the vertical and horizontal axes on the bar chart
Listing of the five types of consumer goods: cars, computers, books, perfume, and cameras
Differentiation between France and the UK with colors on the chart
Guidance on writing the introduction paragraph by paraphrasing the IELTS statement
Use of academic language and passive tense in the introduction
Inclusion of key categories and countries in the introduction
Emphasis on the importance of the date in the introduction
Mention of currency units in the introduction
The necessity of an overview paragraph for a high IELTS band score
Identification of key features: high points, low points, and overall spending comparison
Writing the overview paragraph with comparatives and superlatives
Organizing body paragraphs logically for clarity and coherence
Two suggested methods for organizing body paragraphs based on data patterns
Use of linkers and comparatives in body paragraphs to describe categories
Importance of supporting sentences with numerical data in body paragraphs
Advice on using currency symbols and the word 'respectively' for clarity
Encouragement to practice writing introductions to avoid mistakes
Offer of a full model answer for a band score 9 piece of writing
Invitation to engage with the instructor's blog for more IELTS writing tips
Transcripts
hello my name's Liz and in this lesson
I'm going to give you all the essential
tips and techniques that you need to
know to be successful with bar charts
for IELTS writing task one we're going
to look at each paragraph and I'm going
to show you what information you need to
put in each paragraph and how to write
it this is the bar chart we're going to
use for this lesson so let's have a
look the chart shows the expenditure of
two countries on consumer goods in
2010 I Els will always give you a
description of the chart and this is key
information that you need to read to
understand the meaning of your bar chart
now when we look at the bar chart we can
see that that down the vertical axis
here so at the side we've got all the
different amounts of money that the two
countries
spend along the bottom so that's the
horizontal axis we've got all the
different types of consumer goods so
we've got five different types of
consumer goods we have cars computers
books perfume and cameras
and if we look further we can see that
the two countries we've got one in blue
and one in red we got France and the UK
so that is our bar chart for this lesson
let's have a look at our
paragraphs the first paragraph that you
will need to write is your
introduction then you will have
something called an overview after that
you've got two body paragraphs for the
introduction we need to paraphrase this
statement here so the information that
IELTS give you we need to write it again
in our own words for the introduction
let me show you how to do that now and
here is our introduction so let me show
you how I wrote it now the first two
words the chart you can see it's the
same I have not change those words and I
don't recommend that you should a chart
is a chart a Gra is a graph a table is a
table you do not need to paraphrase
every word because not all words can be
paraphrased successfully in English so
it is normal for a band score nine to
have some words the same so we've got
the first two words we're going to keep
them then we will take a look at the
verb they say shows we can use
illustrates you could also say gives
information
about they say the expenditure and I say
the amount of money spent that's a very
nice
paraphrase they say that it is the
expenditure of consumer goods so what
I've done is I've kept that word that's
the correct word it's an academic word I
don't want to change it but I do add the
number it's time to introduce
the categories remember this is your
introduction you want to introduce the
information so the amount of money spent
on five consumer goods and here you can
see that I have given the list now it's
very good to give a list of the
categories but only if it's not too long
so here we've got five if it is over
eight maybe you don't want to do that
and you just give the number but here
I've given the list and I have used
brackets and brackets are very useful in
academic writing task one so that you
can put data or information in them
perfectly normal to use so we've got the
list and then I say in France and the UK
they say in two countries but again this
is the introduction and I want to
introduce these two countries so always
try to give the names if you
can in the UK and France in
2010 and of course the date very
important because we must pay attention
to the date to know the tents that we
will use for writing this task one is
there anything
missing yes you can see down the side
here that we've got some extra
information so of course we want to
paraphrase the information given by
IELTS but we also want to look at the
chart to see if there is any other
information that we want to introduce
and of course here we've got that all
money is measured in Pounds Sterling so
we need to write that in our
introduction and we can
write units
are
measured
in
Pounds Sterling and this is a very
useful sentence to use because of course
that is a passive tense which is very
nice for the examiner so if you have
interesting units for example pound
sterling or a different currency then
please put put the measurement for your
units in your introduction so that means
the introduction is sometimes one
sentence sometimes two sentences not
longer it's the easiest paragraph to
write in ielt writing task one you
should not make any mistakes with this
so please make sure you practice that
now let's move on and we'll have a look
at the overview the overview is the most
important paragraph in your I writing
task one this is the paragraph where you
will collect all the key features and
put them together in an overview
statement The Examiner is looking for
the overview if you have no
overview you will not get above band
score 5 for task achievement that's 25%
of your marks
if you have an overview that's band
score six if you have a clear overview
that's band score seven so your band
score will go up depending on this
overview so very important now before I
show you how to write your overview
let's have a look at what the key
features are if you look at the chart
you will see that in red is the UK and
in blue is France and of course key
features are all about the high points
and the low points of your chart so if
we look here for the red one that's UK
we can see that most of the spending was
on cars and also for France the blue one
that's the same so both France and the
UK spent most of their money on cars but
if we look at the other end so the lower
points for
England the least amount of money was
spent on
perfume and for France it was cameras so
those are key features is there any
other key feature we can have yes and of
course what you need to look at is very
simple can you see more red or more blue
so which country spent more money in
total on the consumer goods and you can
see that obviously there is more red so
the UK spent more money than France so
let's write the overview and here we've
got the overview so let's have a look we
start with the word overall because we
want to show the reader to show The
Examiner that this is our overview this
is a good technique to use because it
means the examiner can easily find the
overview and that will help us get a
better band score so overall the
expenditure of the UK was higher than
that of France so this is our first key
feature overall so taking the whole
chart together which one was higher and
you can see we're using a
comparative overviews often usually have
comparatives now we look at the next
part this is quite a long sentence and
it's connected with two linkers we got
while and compared to so let's have a
look we got both the French and the
British so here I've changed it instead
of giving the name of the country I'm
using the
nationality both the French and the
British spent the most money on cars and
here we've got a superlative so the
highest the
most while in the UK the least again
this is a superlative the least amount
of money was spent on perfume compared
to cameras in France so in total in this
overview we've got three key features
we've got which one was higher than the
other
overall and we've got the most money
spent and the least money spent three
key features how many do you normally
have
well it's very rare to have only one I
think that's almost impossible you are
usually looking at two three or four key
features occasionally five it depends on
all the information in your chart or
your table for
example right so that's the overview now
let's have a look at the body paragraphs
this is one way to organize the body
paragraphs now let me give you a rule
first you must divide the body
paragraphs you cannot have one body
paragraph you are being tested on your
organization and your use of
paragraphs so that's 25% of your marks
so if you have only one body paragraph
it's going to be hard to get a good
result for coherence and
cohesion so I'm going to show you two
different ways to organize the body
paragraphs the most important thing is
is that it's logical so this is one
possibility in body paragraph a we can
have information about cars perfume and
cameras and that is because we
highlighted them as the highest and the
lowest so that would be a very easy
logical way to organize your writing and
of course body paragraph B would have
the other two categories so computers
and books let me show you another way to
organize it and here is the alternative
the other way to organize your body
paragraphs you can see I've got cars
books and cameras together let's have a
look why well cars you can see that the
UK was higher than France the next one
books that's the same the UK spent more
money than France on books and cameras
you can see the same you can see a
significant difference between the
spending and for body paragraph B we
have the reverse so you can see that
computers France spent more than England
UK and
perfume you can see again that France
spent more than the UK on perfume so
that is the other way to organize it
which one is better they are both very
good they will both give you a band
score nine for
organization the most important thing is
that it's logical and easy to follow for
the reader now let's just have a quick
look at how to write the body paragraph
here we have two sample sentences for
the category of cars and books so let's
have a look you can see that we start
off with a Linker in terms of cars this
is very nice because the reader
immediately knows which category we're
talking about in terms of cars the UK
spent around
£450,000
so when you're writing your body
paragraphs you need to take a look at
the graph at the chart and you need to
have a look this is the cars and here
we've got the UK and you can see that it
is between 400,000
and
500,000 we cannot write it was
450,000 because we cannot see exactly
but we can see that it was around
£450,000
so they spent around £450,000 on this
that means
cars as opposed to this is a very nice
Linker to connect the information about
France and England as opposed to exactly
£400,000 in France and you can see here
we've got £400,000
then we move on to books that's this one
here and it says that the expenditure on
books in the UK was higher than in
France so we've got another
comparative when you have a comparative
like that you still need to give the
numbers the data you cannot miss the
data if your sentences in the body
paragraph are not supported by data you
will get about bandore five for task
achievement so that's another problem so
please avoid that and always support
your sentences with the numbers so you
can see in this sentence what I've done
is I've decided to put the numbers in in
Brackets so that's another bracket
sentence and you can say I've got about
400,000 and about £300,000
respectively now respectively means that
the order of the numbers follows the
order in the sentence UK is first that
number refers to the first one the
second number refers to the second one
so make sure you got you the order of
information right and also if you decide
to use this method and have a sentence
using respectively please don't put a
long list of numbers because it becomes
very difficult for the examiner to check
he has to go through each number and
check that everything is correct he will
check every number that you write so
those are two examples of complex
sentences to describe the categories in
the body paragraphs of course you have
to write the others um other things I
want to point out and that's here just
here you can see that I have written a
symbol for the pound sign I have not
written pound sterling and that's
because I don't want to keep repeating
words all the time it is fine in I
writing task one to use symbols you can
use symbols for currencies and
percentages and many other things so
please make sure that you use that and
when the examiner is counting the number
of words you've written he will take
that as one word because it's just a
symbol with a
number so that is the body paragraphs if
you would like to see the full model so
a band score9 piece of writing for this
chart then I will give you a link at the
end of this video so you can have a look
well that's all for this lesson if you
found it useful please press like if you
have questions then put them under the
video or visit my blog on my blog there
are many answers to questions about
writing task one as well as all the
other skills in I so please take a look
I will see you again in another I
lesson e
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